Thursday, 17 October 2013

After 3 and half years of living in my 1963 bathroom, I've
finally been able to kiss goodbye to my lovely pink bath, basin and toilet!

My original plans for the bathroom were for a complete rip
out and redo, but as circumstances changed I needed to pare back my plans and
look at what I could do on a minimal budget but having the greatest impact.

I myself can’t hardly hammer a nail in the wall, but luckily
my darling partner is a genius at all things building and came to my rescue,
along with his parents!!

Being built in 1963 my bathroom is clad with asbestos. So to
keep the costs to the minimum we decided to keep the existing tiles and paint
them with tile paint ($79).

Most significantly, missing from the bathroom was any form of
storage. So the pink basin had to go. We replaced it with a simple white vanity
from Bunnings ($399) and a large mirror ($40).

For the floor to save some money, and time, we retiled over
the top of the existing mosaic tiles. They were lovely, and it was a hard
decision, but I wanted to try and achieve a calm feel for the bathroom so we
chose a basic30cm x 30cm porcelain
floor($2.95 each – total cost $188.10).

We also replaced all the fittings ($137) along with a new
shower curtain and rod ($24) and new towel rails ($9).

The toilet was also replaced with a new white one ($97).
Finally, all the walls were painted Dulux Lexicon Quarter ($105 – but this was
under coat and bathroom paint in 4ltrs as I will be using it in the kitchen as
well).

I hung a basic modern print on the wall above the bath (see
my post from last week) and the total cost of the renovation came in at
under $1500 which includes all the extras I needed including paint brushes,
grouting, silicone, drop sheets etc.

I'm so happy with the feel of my new bathroom, I have no idea
why it took me so long to do it! I can't wait to tackle
the kitchen next!

I hope this inspires you to see what a big difference you
can make on a small budget!!

Monday, 29 July 2013

OK, I know it seems a little strange to be decorating my loo (!), but this looks really nice in my children’s bathroom! As you all know, I’m very
keen about low cost makeovers,
and it occurred to me the other day that another very low cost way of changing
the look of your bathroom is to give your toilet a makeover! There are also so
many really ugly toilet seats around (think lace, glitter and swimming
dolphins), so I wanted to do something that was a bit more funky and modern.

This project could be especially nice if your toilet is in a room of
its own, and the room is otherwise unable to be decorated much. In my case, the
toilet in my children’s bathroom is in the smack-bang-centre of the room and
therefore is the main focus of the room!

Of course these photos are more about the concept rather than the
finished product. There are SO many options with this project! Whatever you
wanted to put on there, really! You just need to be able to still sit on it and
clean it! I also tried adding more material onto the toilet seat for a different look too.

If you wanted to try something like this in YOUR bathroom, all you’ll
need is some fabric or paper, scissors and some contact.

Firstly, give the toilet a quick clean!! Then trace the area of the
toilet that you want to stick something onto. I traced straight onto the back
of the contact. Then I cut the shape out.

Cut out the shape of the material or paper that you’d like to use. Just
make sure that you’re going to have enough contact around the edge of your
shape to keep it stuck firmly on.

I then gave my material a quick iron.

It was then
a simple matter of sticking the material onto the contact,

and then sticking it
onto the lid of the loo.

It’s still very easy to clean, and you can just rip it
off and chuck it out when you’re sick of it!

Thursday, 28 February 2013

I'm slowly getting closer to starting some big renovations at home - and while this means I'm busy planning the new renovations I'm also pretty busy looking at what I already have and how I could improve it.

I've had this deck chair for about 6 years now. It's been pretty weathered from a couple years living at the beach and then a few more recently in the Queensland heat (and rain) and finally over Christmas my dad sat in it and it fell apart!

It only took a day to quickly update the chair and make it look brand new again - First I removed the old fabric and all the rope ties. I kept the fabric to use as a template for the new chair cover.I bought a more sturdy outdoor fabric so hopefully it will last! A lovely bright navy (is there such a thing??) and white Ikat print from Spotlight.Then it was just a case of giving the timber a good sand and repaint (I left it to dry overnight just to make sure).While i was waiting i cut out the fabric using the old fabric as my template and once the paint was dry simply attached it through the loop at the top and staple gunned it at the base.

I love the chair now - don't think I'm going to replace the rope either - looks simpler without it.Happy home decorating!Caity x

Monday, 7 November 2011

This Christmas project is really quick and easy and does not involve any sewing, glueing or anything! Biscuit or Cookie cutters often feature as Christmas Decorations in magazines and they look beautiful. However, the trick is often getting them to sit straight for a garland or other arrangement.

For this project, you’ll need some pegs, string (I used jute), small strips of material, and some biscuit cutters. I purchased a tin of 30 cutters for $12 from Target.

Simply put the material through the top of the cutter so that the cutter sits properly front-on. Then peg it to your string... and it’s done!

Once you get started on this one with the pegs, you might think of all sorts of things that would look nice pegged to string for a Christmas theme.

Thursday, 20 October 2011

Last week I started to update our spare room so that it looks a bit more attractive for guests. The room is small - it only really just fits a single bed and a bedside table.

I had an old bed stored in one of our sheds. The bed itself was fantastic, really solid, but the bedhead was past its prime style-wise:I wanted to give it more of a luxurious look! So I thought I'd pad it a bit and put some material over it. So I got out my staple gun, some standard toy-stuffing wadding that I'd purchased from Spotlight, two types of fabric... and I got going!

I arranged the wadding over the front of the bedhead as evenly as possible, then stretched some hardy curtain material that I had over the top of it and stapled the material to the back of the bedhead. This is how it looked from the back (above, with my little daughter as helper), and this is how it looked side-on (below).

I didn't worry too much about how it looked from the back, as you can see...

Once I'd finished the stapling of the first material, I stapled the next and final layer of material straight over the top. This is how it looked from the back when it was finished.

And this is how it looked from the front.

... and this photo shows you how the corners look close-up. I didn't fuss too much about them.

And here's the final photo... all finished and looking good with the bed put together. I have also added a couple of no-zip cushions that I made up to go with the bedhead. It looks fantastic!

Monday, 29 August 2011

This is what our second bathroom looked like before I painted to update it a bit. As with most of my "renovations"... everything had to stay the same (the slate, sink, vanity, taps etc) and so I had to just work with what was there.

There was certainly an abundance of slate, and it sits halfway up the wall which makes it hard to hang pictures to cover it so that it's a bit more balanced... but I got a selection of my child's paintings (plus one of mine - the black and white one), and stuck them up with blu-tac over the wall and the slate.

Then I added some lettering (also stuck on with blu-tac), a starfish, a mirror that I purchased half-price from Target and painted white, and all the other bits and pieces that need to go into a bathroom for everyday use! On the ground next to the bathtub is the top of an old broken shoe rack from IKEA that I had... it looks great as a wooden bath mat!

Welcome!

We are two friends, Caity and Emma, and we love everything handmade and creative. Our blog is all about making beautiful things for our homes and gifts for our friends and families. We also want to share our ideas with you! Each of our posts give you step-by-step instructions on how to complete our projects.... so that you can try them yourself at home if you'd like to. ENJOY!

More about caity and emma

contact us

thomhaushandmade@yahoo.com.au

why the thom haus name?

Lots of people ask us what's behind the name of our blog. "thom haus" is based on the name of Caity's little boy Thomas and Haus being the German word for 'house' - which makes Thom's house or Thom Haus.